CREST & UCSB to focus on R&D for LED sector

CREST & UCSB to focus on R&D for LED sector

18 Dec 2014

In a media statement on the signing of the collaborative effort, in conjunction with CRESTSymposium
2014 in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, Dato’ Azman Mahmud, Chairman of CREST and Chief Executive Officer of the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) said Malaysia is among the largest in the world for back-end processes in LED manufacturing. Hence, the tie-up is very important and timely to provide the needed thrust to move the industry up the value chain, he added.

The collaboration with UCSB was concluded in just over a year following the visit of three UCSB professors – Dr. Shuji Nakamura (2014 Nobel Prize Winner for Physics); Dr. Steven P. Denbaars, Director of the Solid State Lighting Energy Centre; and Dr James Speck of the Materials Department, to CREST late last year.

CREST Chief Executive Officer, Jaffri Ibrahim, who held talks with the three eminent professors during the visit, said the company is keen to develop the next generation of LED technology. “It’s not just technical knowledge we are looking for but also the methodology and culture that has allowed UCSB to be more than a typical academia-type research centre but one that is more in tune with industry needs,” he said.

The tripartite collaboration involves the academia (UCSB, Universti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) and Monash University Malaysia), the industry (various existing LED makers in Malaysia) and the government via CREST.

The joint initiative will focus on epitaxial development (where additional layers of semiconductor crystals are grown on the surface of a wafer).

Source: Bernama 18 Dec 2014, Crestand
MIDA